Newsom:

“I’m excited to head into the next phase of this campaign and want to make sure I represent everybody who’s part of this team. If I could only focus on one issue, what would you want it to be?”

Redmond:

I wrote: Economic justice, which means income and wealth redistribution and a tax system that doesn’t allow a few people to have billions while others are homeless in the streets. Do the opposite of what you did with Care Not Cash and create a guaranteed annual income.

As with this support for Gay Marriage. Newsom shrewdly supported the “legalization”of cannabis on a ballot initiative in the fall of 2016.

Just as his support for Gay Marriage garnered him campaign contributions from wealthy gays and lesbians, so his support for cannabis decriminalization (while taxing it and regulating its sale) has attracted donations from the “industry.”

Some in the industry see Newsom as a candidate who listens to their concerns and will stick up for them. Although Newsom says he has never smoked marijuana himself, he was one of the first statewide officeholders to support legalization of recreational use.

The host of the Salinas fundraiser on March 3 was Indus Holding Company, maker of cannabis confections such as Toasted Rooster and Crispy Kraken chocolate bars.

Dinner gave way to a roundtable discussion among the 20 or so guests, who raised with Newsom some of the issues affecting their nascent businesses, according to interviews with multiple attendees.

Banking was a major topic that night, they said. Currently, the vast majority of banks and credit unions will not work with cannabis companies, because the federal government considers their revenue illegal. Some operate on an all-cash basis, and most lack the ability to find traditional financing.

A proposal discussed that night would have the state create a special bank that would serve the cannabis industry. Newsom has not taken a public position, but he expressed interest in the idea of a pot bank, three attendees said.

As Democrats go, Chiang seems to be a better choice than Newsom or Villaragosa. Jon Regardle reports:

Newsom and AnVil both have flaws. Each suffered a damaging extramarital affair, and Villaraigosa was a mediocre mayor at best. Plus, once you get beyond their key bases of support, you wind up with a lot of Californians who lean conservative. That may not be definitive in a June primary, but if Chiang finishes in the top two and moves on to the November runoff, you can see him as more palatable to Republicans in places such as Bakersfield and Orange County.

Chiang seems ready to swing big. By all accounts he is willing to do do the work the governor’s race requires. His website is decent, even if the main insignia, with a green badge-shaped outline around his name, looks like a pudgy arrowhead turned upside down.

“We can’t be great going forward if we have third-world infrastructure.” — John Chiang

Chronicle columnist David Talbot offers a brief interview with Gavin Newsom in which Talbot cites “gay marriage” as an issue on which he admires Newsom’s pluck. (Although he can not cite a second instance because no one can. And gay pockets hold a lot of campaign donations, as Newsom has always been well aware of).

“And then there’s slick and corporate Newsom — the leader who sometimes seems more of a tech entrepreneur than a man of the people, with his talk of re-engineering democracy while taking bags full of campaign cash from Airbnb and private equity firms. Newsom has raised more money in his race for governor than any of his rivals, with a big boost from Airbnb, whose employees have kicked in more than $225,000 so far to his campaign. While progressive San Francisco officials have desperately tried to clamp reasonable limits on Airbnb, as the short-term rental behemoth threatens to turn the city into its tourist domain, Newsom has opposed all such regulatory efforts.”

This makes it pretty clear that Newsom is beholden to the wealthy. No surprise there!

Talbot, of course, fails to ask about prisons, the police, his staunch support for neoliberal policies (including park privatization), charter schools, how corporate marijuana legislation will unfold on the ground, the problems of extortionate rent and real estate prices, high fees at State universities and many other topics…..